Daily Sun (November 4 2013) - LAST week, angry and terrified residents warned that the cops must not be surprised if they went on the attack.

And yesterday scenes of unspeakable horror unfolded as five people were necklaced and beaten.

FIVE HAVE DIED - FOUR OF THEM AT THE SCENE AND ONE IN HOSPITAL.

But while residents have gone on the rampage, carrying out their threat to the cops, it is almost certain that some of the dead were just innocent men caught up in a frenzy of anger.

In Friday's Daily Sun, in an article titled "We live in fear", residents of Khutsong, near Carletonville, described how three gangs - the Vandals, the Casanovas and the Creatures - maintained a reign of terror in the kasi.

Three people, including a sangoma believed to be giving muthi to the gangsters, were set alight.

A fourth man was stoned and hacked to death with pangas.

All four died at the scene.

The fifth man died later in hospital after he was stoned and hacked with pangas.

According to Herbert Malejane (45), a community member in Khutsong south, extension 4, residents had a meeting on Saturday to discuss the high crime rate in the township, especially among youth aged 13 to 26.

Herbert said at about 11am yesterday morning, more than 700 angry residents went to the sangoma's place in Khutsong ext 3.

"They cornered him and set him alight," said Herbert.

Then the group went to extension 4, where they mistakenly necklaced and burned two innocent men aged 23 and 24.

The brother of one of the necklaced men told Daily Sun his brother was a good man.

"I had high hopes for him but now he has died for something he didn't do," said the 26-year-old.

"He didn't belong to a gang and he didn't do crime."

The residents then went to extension 5, where a young man, believed to have been one of the gang members, was stoned and hacked to death.

A police van had its front windscreen broken as the police were trying to rescue the man.

) Last week, Khutsong Police Station commander Colonel Melinda Prinsloo said the gangs were a menace to society.

"People lay charges and we arrest them, but because they are juveniles the court releases them into the custody of their parents," Prinsloo told the People's Paper.

"They are protected by the Child Justice Act but when we explain this to the community, they don't want to hear about it."

Constable Thembi Masango confirmed the death of the sangoma and described the situation in Khutsong as "chaos".

Nobody has been arrested yet.

Paul Ncwane, the chairman of the SA National Civic Organisation in the area, said there were helicopters and police Nyalas as well as police officers patrolling on foot in the area.

Angry people were moving around in groups and were splitting up to avoid the police and confuse them.

"We are trying to stop gangsters," said Ncwane. "Women and children are living in fear because of these boys," he said.

He said groups were also blocking the Potchefstroom road and throwing rocks at cars.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

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